I'm going to date myself with this post, but I have to. Pauline Baynes was THE eye of Narnia for me. I can't look at any other illustrations and the films don't do it for me. The Narnia books were deep influences in building my personal fantasy world, the Christian themes aside. In fact, I was never able to re-read the books once C.S. Lewis' themes became clear to me, but her illustrations still draw me in to visualize a Narnia that I built in my head, one that had no particular ties to a religion, just to my imagination. Because I so wanted to go through the back of a wardrobe, through a 'portal fantasy' as Farah calls it, and find myself face to face with a strange creature inviting me home for tea. I still do.

News is going across the blogs that Pauline Baynes passed away. Read some background on her life and work here: http://briansibleysblog.blogspot.com/

It's well worth the click of the mouse.

Frog Out